About My Oral Village

At My Oral Village, we fight poverty by making financial inclusion possible, for innumerate and semi-numerate people, through tools, knowledge and confidence to access financial services.

It’s a huge task. About 1 billion people around the world are illiterate and innumerate. They can’t understand three-digit numbers, can’t read the payment transfers on their mobile phone, or the loan balance from the money lender, and don’t know if the savings group record matches the money they put in. Without numeracy skills, people are incredibly vulnerable, struggling with a precarious livelihood.

Thanks to our extensive field experience and research into the financial capabilities, behaviours and practices of innumerate and semi-numerate people, we are making financial transactions understandable to these vulnerable communities to reduce the risk of errors, fraud, theft, and to allow participation in the digital cash revolution.

We’re a nonprofit (incorporated in November 2011). We’re not a charity so we can’t issue tax receipts but do ask that you consider donating to our work.

Management and Governance

Executive Director: Brett Matthews, MBA, MA (development studies)

Brett Matthews founded My Oral Village. Brett has extensive experience with microfinance in oral communities and designing oral information management systems. Brett has conducted many evaluations of village finance projects, working in 15 of the world’s poorest countries since 2000. He was Gates Advisor at MicroSave India during 2008-09, where he advised over a dozen MFIs in 12 Indian states. With the Canadian Co-operative Association, Brett led the development of the Cambodian Community Finance Network (CCFiN) from 2003-07, preparing the way for the emergence of a national credit union movement in that country. In the 1990s Brett worked at Metro (now Alterna) Credit Union in Toronto, and served on the credit committee of the Calmeadow Metro Fund, a microcredit fund operating in Toronto.

Chief Technology Officer: Paul Jackson

Chief Marketing Officer: Margaret Hazlewood

Volunteers help with communications, research, product development and testing and proposal writing. Please contact us if you’re interest in learning more about getting involved in our work.

President: Heather Broughton, MBA, CFA

Heather Broughton is a senior business process manager at Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board. She is also is very active in microfinance and international development.

Treasurer: Cecilia Luko

Cecilia Luko is an assurance and advisory professional with background in accounting and finance. She is a firm believer in partnerships between organizations, professionals and communities to tackle society’s most pressing problems.

Director: David Myhre, MS

Dave Myhre is a senior advisor to the SEEP Network, with decades of work in the area of microfinance.